Bubble Revolt

War isn't pretty and it's not meant to be. There's no room for
sentiment - it's kill or be killed out there, and unless
you're careful you'll soon be overrun by enemy troops spreading
through your lines like wildfire.

But before you think you're reading a review of the new
Call Of Duty game, let us stop for a second and explain to
you that the war we speak of isn't being fought on the battlefields
of the Somme or the beaches of Normandy, but rather it's raging
across roundabouts, car parks, and other everyday settings. This is, after all, no ordinary war. This is
Bubble Revolt.

Makers Herocraft describe
Bubble Revolt as a cross between a puzzle game and a
real-time strategy battle, and we're inclined to agree. Playing as a team of blue bubbles, your objective is to colonise
a battlefield made of squares with as many bubbles of your colour
as possible. With a style of gameplay that's reminiscent of Reversi, you can
multiply your forces by splitting a bubble in two and occupying the
adjacent square with the offspring, or remaining whole and jumping
to a square that's further away. Either way, opposing coloured
bubbles on adjacent squares are turned to your colour, thus
increasing your army as you try to take over the board.

Unlike Reversi, though, the levels are of varying shapes and
sizes, and the number of opponents ranges from one to three, each
getting as many turns as you to try to take over the screen. The game has a total of 50 levels, or so we're told - if
we'd more time we'd have made it past level 34, honest. But
Bubble Revolt is so accessible that anyone can have a go
- and probably do better than us to boot - and have a
great time playing.

Crucially, you won't be able to resist playing levels again and
again until you conquer them, and, believe us, it's oh so
satisfying when you finally do. The great thing about the level design is that tactics that work
on one level can be completely useless on the next, so you have to
constantly reassess your surroundings and strategy every time you
play.

The visuals and audio are equally well-executed for a simple
puzzle game. All of the levels are fresh and brightly coloured, and
the animation of the bubbles as they jump, multiply, or indeed just
get bored when you take too long to move is quite impressive. The
cutesy graphical style may not be to everyone's taste, but we think
it does a good job of making this game appealing to fans of several
different genres.

The ability to record a replay of your triumph is a novel
inclusion, and it's particularly useful if a friend is struggling
on a level, just to rub salt into his wounds by showing them how
you pulled off a stunning majority victory in under three
minutes.

It would be better still if you could somehow send that video to
their phone as an MMS message, but seeing as that's our one major
suggestion for improving
Bubble Revolt, we're not going to complain. Vive le revolution!